Cleantech News Roundup: Silly Solar, VW & BMW Defeat Devices, Hybrid Supercars, Bespoke Tesla, & Tinfoil Hats

---

Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.

---

We’ve got silly solar legislation, a bespoke Tesla wagon, large-scale plant-based minced meat production, a “recycled hawtness” double-decker bus conversion, more Volkswagen defeat device recalls, a healthy serving of cold fusion and tinfoil hats, and more in today’s cleantech and clean transport roundup.

In today’s fast-paced internet media environment, you’re bound to miss a lot of news if you aren’t obsessively following cleantech and clean transport topics across a great many sites. The good news is that in addition to the obsessive coverage we maintain here on CleanTechnica, the team at Important Media also publishes their work on a handful of our other sites as well, which is where you’ll find stories that don’t necessarily fit perfectly on CleanTechnica, but which are still relevant to the bigger picture of building a cleaner and healthier future for us all. And while we’ve been a bit spotty in our practice of sharing some of those stories here in the form of weekly news roundups, we’re back at it again today.

Clean Transport

EV Tax Credit Survives Republican Tax Scam

Jo wants to know, “Is this a glimmer of hope that the Republicans are finally starting to come around on the subject of climate change and realize that this stuff about reducing dependence on fossil fuels is actually important, or is it the shiny new Tesla thing?”

Germany’s KBA Forces Recall Of Volkswagen Touareg SUVs Due To Illegal Defeat Devices

Apparently 2 separate “illicit emissions control devices” have been discovered in the newest generation of 3-liter diesel Volkswagen Touaregs. This news follows on a recall in Europe of ~22,000 Porsche Cayenne SUVs back in July following a similar discovery (of defeat devices). This makes you wonder: What else have VW Group execs yet to come clean about?

BMW Denies Accuracy Of DUH Report Which Found Real-World 3-Series NOx Emissions 7 Times Above Legal Limit

The German luxury auto manufacturer BMW has denied allegations from the environmental group DUH that engine management software cut power to a system filtering nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions during real-world road testing of a 3-Series diesel car — thus allowing for NOx emissions some 7 times higher than the legal limit.

Recycled Hawtness: the Rosebery Double Decker Bus Bar

The people behind the Bus Business are geniuses. They’re artistic geniuses, they’re construction geniuses, they’re cultural geniuses — heck, that’s probably not even a real thing. And yet, there they are. One look at their converted London Routemaster double decker bus will prove it.

600 HP Volvo Polestar 1 Will Be Available by Subscription

The virtual ink was hardly dry on the announcement of the flagship, 600 HP hybrid super car before questions about buying it began swirling. “The Polestar 1 will not be available through Volvo dealers, and will not be made available for sale,” was the unexpected answer from parent company Volvo. All of which begs the question: what the heck does that mean!?

That Bespoke Tesla Wagon is Coming Along Nicely

Tesla Model S owner Phil Hayton wanted his dogs to be able to travel in his electric luxo-cruiser with him, but didn’t want to drive around in an awkward, egg-y Model X. What Phil wanted was a wagon. A wagon that Tesla, sadly, doesn’t offer. What’s the well-heeled gentleman to do? Well, if you’re Phil Hayton, you have that Tesla Wagon built.

MotoGP Picks Energica Ego for New Electric Race Series

The promoters behind the successful MotoGP racing series have announced plans to launch a single-make electric motorcycle championship in 2019. It will be called the FIM Moto-e World Cup, and it will be contested by world-class riders saddling the machine you see here: the Energica Ego.

Video: Gas vs. Electric vs. Hybrid Supercar Showdown

Originally spotted a few months ago while touring the streets of Switzerland, the guys at Amazon’s the Grand Tour decided to pit three different power train concepts against each other to see which one was truly fastest make some awesome TV.

Court Official: Uber Should Have Produced Ex-Employee Letter, Keeping It From Court Was Wrong

Uber execs and lawyers, despite being aware of the letter, never disclosed its existence to authorities involved in the ongoing lawsuit against Uber brought by Alphabet (Google) — a lawsuit expressly alleging trade secret theft of Waymo (Google) LiDAR technology.

Cleantech

Small-Scale Municipal Solar Installations Being Dismantled In Copenhagen Due To Silly Legislation

According to the Danish municipal organization kommunen.dk, a total of 4 relatively new and perfectly functional small-scale solar installations on public buildings in Copenhagen are being dismantled right now due to complex and utterly silly regulatory legislation.

Plant-Based “Minced Meat” Being Introduced On A Large Scale in Denmark

The largest Danish supermarket retailer, Dansk Supermarked Group, announced that it is introducing a plant-based “minced meat” early next year in 600 stores serving 1.5 million customers across the country. On a Danish scale — with a population of 5.7 million — this is a massive push.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm..

On Nikola Tesla, Zero Point Energy, Cold Fusion, & Tin Foil Hats

Is this a classic case of scientific fraud, like cold fusion? Or a glimpse behind the curtain of a new and exciting energy source that could transform human society and eliminate the need for fossil fuels forever?